Thursday, October 13, 2016

Cream of mushroom soup

There are three secrets to an aromatic, smooth, ultra-delicious cream of mushroom soup:

High-quality chicken stock, homemade if possible

Butter

A high-powered blender

We eat a lot of mushroom soup, especially now that I am following a low-carb, high fat diet to control my diabetes. And yes, I am in love with an appliance. Why are you smirking? A kitchen appliance. Get your mind out of the gutter.

An immersion blender is handy when you're making soup because you can puree it right in the pot. But it never gets totally smooth. I've made this cream of mushroom soup many times with an immersion blender, and while it tastes fabulous, it's always got a little texture to it. But the Vitamix produces cream of mushroom soup as smooth as milk. The cream I added just gilded the lily.

I'm a convert. The Vitamix is expensive (I bought it at Costco for about $400) but I think it's worth it. There's a lot of soup in my future.

Note: No one paid me anything or gave me anything to write this post. I bought my Vitamix with my own hard-earned money. And I intend to keep it for a good, long time. The link included in this post is an Amazon affiliate links, so if you click and buy anything, I will get a (very small) commission.

The better your blender, the smoother your soup will be. Flavorful Baby Bella mushrooms (also known as crimini mushrooms) add more personality than standard white button mushrooms, but use any mushrooms you like.

Add the butter and oil to a large pot over medium-high heat. When the butter melts, add the chopped onion and saute about 4 minutes, until the onion is softened. Add the mushrooms and chicken stock. Bring the soup to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer gently about 30 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft.Transfer the soup to your blender, working in batches if your blender isn't big enough to hold the whole pot. Puree the soup in the blender until very smooth, 1-2 minutes depending on the manliness of your appliance. (Alternatively, puree the soup in the pot with a hand-held immersion blender.)Return the soup to the pot, add the cream, and stir just until steaming. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve immediately.

14 comments:

I'm right there with you on the VitaMix. I moved from crush to completely head over heals in an instant. My neighbor gave me her VitaMix because she felt like she had too many appliances. It was brand new and still had the literature tucked into the container. And I love that it came with a wet and a dry container so I can make flours!

Kevin - until now I have made do with my hand-held immersion blender, which cost less than $50. The results are fine, but not like the Vitamix. The Blendtec is also expensive. Many people swear they get great results from a normal countertop blender, but I never went that route. Sorry - I didn't do any comparison testing - just went with friends' recommendations.

I adore this recipe. I'm making it now for the third time! I had a moment of panic when I couldn't find where I'd bookmarked the link, but here you are! :) Once I used almond milk instead of the cream to accomdate a non-dairy tummy, and it will still delicious! Thanks so much for sharing! -bethany bARTon (fellow Vitamix addict!)

Thanks for the recipe. Made it last night with my Vitamix using regular mushrooms since that is what I had. I sautéed some chopped mushrooms and set aside and add back in at the end. My husband said it was the best he'd ever had. I agreed!Laura Sweeting a/k/a lyricalpursuit

Do you still cook it in the pot first to tenderize the veggies? I am trying to make cream of mushroom replacement for green bean casserole... The canned stuff has way too much crap in it! And I know there has to be a good replacement to make with the Vitamix :)

@Unknown I do cook it in the pot, not only to tenderize the vegetables but also to evaporate the liquid from the mushrooms - otherwise the soup would be less flavorful. And yes, I am with you on the canned mushroom soup! I have a great recipe for green bean casserole from scratch on this blog if you're interested: http://www.inerikaskitchen.com/2010/10/green-bean-casserole-recipe-fresh-way.html

I've been wanting to take the blunge and buy a vitamix, but I bought a ninja from Costco instead for much cheaper. It seems to do the trick with everything else, so hopefully it will work for this recipe! Looks delicious!